Hitting the Wall and Breaking Through It - (Exploring The Three Spheres of YuGiOh)


Target Audience: competitive players, all skill levels

The following is the intellectual property of the writer, as created on Dec 2nd, 2009. Any unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.


I recently received an interesting personal message:
“Nov 30 2009, 12:58 PM

Hey there.

I'm a Yu-Gi-Oh! player from city X. I float around forum Y and read through topics. I find your posts have a greater amount of value than others.

The reason I'm writing this message to you is to seek further insight on how to play this game properly. As it stands, I've been playing this game since its introduction in North America (Yugi and Kaiba starters.) I have a good collection of cards, so I can build more or less anything. I have a fair knowledge in terms of rulings, and a good understanding on how to make certain moves and what not. However, this seems insufficient and I don't seem to consistently win or do good at locals. So, I find that a bit embarrassing considering how long I've been playing. It also seems I've hit a stop, and I can only progress so much since I don't really leave the city to play in bigger events. I've just reached a point where I get frustrated whenever I lose, and I don't think quitting or cheating are really attractive options. Given my situation, I was wondering if you had any ideas on what I could do to get better. I'd like to actually to develop on my skill. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.”

I want to assure this person that this experience is one shared by most, if not all, competitive YuGiOh players. I call it “hitting the wall”. It’s reaching a point where you find yourself at a stagnant level, one where you have no problem defeating the casual or less competitive players but can’t seem to win when playing against the best. The frustrating part is not knowing exactly what you are doing wrong and not being able to remedy that deficiency. The good news is that there are ways to break through this wall, and in fact, pretty much every top tier player had to do this at some point of their playing career.

In order to further discuss skill and areas of improvement, it is easier to break down skill into 3 domains and tackle them individually. I consider these the 3 spheres of Yugioh competence. Of course, these are not all encompassing, but I will refer to these in this article as a tool to break down this large task of “breaking through the wall”.

The game of Yugioh requires a skill set, and those most advanced in those would enjoy the most success. I consider the 3 major spheres to be: knowledge, cognition, and behavior.

In order to become a dominant player in this game, one must have extensive knowledge of the game, its components, its rulings, and the “meta” game. Many players feel that they have adequate knowledge, but I would consider this area to be the biggest weakness of most players. Thankfully, it is also the easiest to address. Knowledge means not having surprises come up mid-match. It means that you are prepared and have an adequate base that you carry with you into each match. In fact, if your base is larger than your opponents, you automatically enter the match at a distinct advantage.

Many people feel that knowledge means knowing what every card in your deck does and their rulings inside out. This is true, but it goes much further. It also means knowing what every card in your opponent’s deck does and their rulings inside out. This means spending a great deal of time reading card effects and their rulings. To give you an example, every 6 months, I used to go on UDE old rulings page and read every card ruling from A to Z. That’s right, EVERY card ruling. Yes, it took hours and is not an entertaining read by any means, but I knew my opponents cards better than they knew them and this gave me a huge advantage. I realize that the rulings page is gone, but there are ways to increase your knowledge. Konami does have ruling on the newer sets, and many decks focus on these sets so that is a great start. There are some other rulings data bases (net rep, yugioh wikia), but they aren’t as organized and make a difficult read. At the very least, you should never walk away from a match and be unclear on an effect/ruling. That should be your motivation to find the answer and prepare yourself for a future similar event.

In addition to individual cards, knowledge of the current competitive decks and predictions of the frequency they are played can be invaluable. Many people netdeck, card for card, and this means that you can anticipate everything in their deck. It is more important to know all the cards that face down Mystic Tomato can fetch from your read rather than the simple fact that you read the Tomato. For this I recommend practice, and not just 1 on 1, but getting a team of people to build all the top tier decks and playtest the various match ups until you can predict their every move.

Cognition and mental capacity can be a limitation for certain players. For those unaware of the term, cognition (from the Latin: cognoscere, "to know" or "to recognize") refers to a faculty for the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences. Cognition includes many processes fundamental to Yugioh including: memory, association, attention, perception, problem solving. For players “hitting the wall”, this is certainly the most difficult sphere to improve upon. Many of these processes are determined by genetics and early childhood experiences, but that is not to say that one cannot improve on these.

My recommendation to anyone that wants to improve their cognitive function is NOT to practice Yugioh or card games but to step away and try other means. There are several tools created specifically for this. Most people are familiar with the “Brain Age” DS series. There are also several puzzle workbooks and such that one can work through.
Additionally, if people can identify their specific weaknesses, they may try to develop their own tools to help themselves during the game. For example, I know that my short-term memory is not what it used to be, so I bring a notepad to every match and am constantly scribbling notes. And its not just cards in hand, I will also occasionally scribble “card reads”, cards in grave, etc. It amazes me when people are completely shocked when they swing into the Mirror Force they saw with Dustshoot. I usually just laugh and say something like, “I got a lucky top-deck”, not wanting to demonstrate their own ignorance to them (unless I know it will throw them off their game).


YuGiOh is a game of decisions. Decisions are an outcome that results from a person’s inherent behavioral pattern which is influence by the individual’s mental capacity and then applied to a specific problem. My personal observations have shown that top-tier players have many similar and even identical behaviors. This is not co-incidence, nor is it mimicry. It is due to a simple fact, certain behaviors lead to success.

Behavior can be broken into 2 types; inherent/automatic and adaptable. I find that players that hit the wall have too many automatic behaviors and lack adaptability. What I mean by that is, players not exploring potentials of different outcomes adequately.

Let us use an example to illustrate. Back in the days of flip-flop control, games would quickly become simplified. It would not be unusual for player A to draw Dekoichi in a “top-deck war” vs Player B’s empty field, for example. The player with the automatic behavioral thought pattern will set the Dekoichi. That’s what you do when you draw Deko; you set it, flip next turn, draw a card and swing for 1400.

However, in order to break the wall, one must consider WHY you are making that play, and the potential options available. In the example, the player, in actuality, has 3 choices: set Deko, summon Deko, pass.

What if the player passes, could that be any good? Chances are no, since there aren’t any specific advantages of holding that extra card in hand at that moment in time. If the player’s deck heavily requires a card with a discard cost AND there is high probability of drawing it next turn, then perhaps some consideration could be made, but it would seem that the better alternative is to set the Deko and draw into the discard fodder anyways.
How about summoning the Dekoichi? This is where a player needs to think about the game state and circumstances in depth. If your opponent has 1400 or less LP, then it’s a no-brainer. What if your opponent has 2000 LP? What if they have 3000 LP? One must now consider the trade-off that can be made – 1400 LP damage now vs an extra card draw next turn. This is where player’s that hit the wall falter. They are so ingrained with the concept of set Deko, flip, that they are blinded to the potential of the immediate 1400 damage and the fact that it could be game winning.

My recommendations to improve gameplay behaviors are two-fold. One, watch the “pros” play. Become familiar with common plays, reads, fakes, baits, etc.
Secondly, always be adaptable and consider the outcomes of less-optimal plays. Sometimes, they are in fact the better play. Sometimes, they feign weakness and lead to game winning moves later on.

This reminds me of a classic move made by a good friend back in the day. He was playing a machine deck and his opponent was playing a Destiny based deck (I believe T-Hero). Score is about 7000 for Machine deck and 4000 for Destiny deck. Destiny player has a Stratos out but is afraid to overcommit due to Mirror Force and Torrential not being played yet. He has 3 sets vs Machine decks 1. Machine player has heavy storm, Cyber Dragon and Dekoichi in hand. He passes. He takes 1800. His turn, he passes again. Takes another 1800. He sets a second backrow and ends. Takes a third 1800. He draws into Limiter Removal this time around, plays heavy storm, drops Cyber Dragon and Deko and Limiters for game. In case you are wondering, that players name was Lazaro Bellido.


Summarization

Hitting the wall is a rite of passage for virtually every player that wants to step up their game to the top tier competitive level. Many people at this stage will give up and accept this level of skill, but it can be overcome. It will take hard work, and it is up to you to decide of its worth. It will require intense studying of card effects and rulings. It takes recognition of your weaknesses and finding ways to overcome them. It takes practice, observation, and patience. But once you break through the wall, you will reach the top tier of gameplay, and it sure is fun at the top. Good luck, and see you at the top tables.